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Monday, May 4, 2009

Monday, May 4, 2009

As with the infamous USB cake, some Wrecks cannot be fully appreciated until you know the story behind them. Fortunately, you guys looove to tell me your stories - some of which I've been hoarding to include in the upcoming Cake Wrecks book - and now I think it's high time to start featuring more of them.

Ashley J. had two male coworkers each expecting a child, so the office decided to get them a cake. They wanted it to say, "Happy Fatherhood Shawn and Glenn".

Instead, they got this:

Like you, I'm sure, Ashley & the gang were just dying to know what the decorator thought he or she was writing, exactly. So, they decided to go find out. Yep, that's right: They grabbed a video camera (did I mention they work at the Fox television animation studio?) and strolled down the street to pay a little visit to the bakery in question.

Ashley, I think it's safe to say we all forgive you. It's just too bad the manager didn't have as much of a sense of humor as you guys did; after all, I think you and Rebner were extremely pleasant about it, all things considered. :)

That was awesome!! too bad they didn't get to meet the decorator. Too bad the woman behind the counter at the end (who was it?) wasn't getting the joke. I was laughing so much I was afraid to wake the kids!

Fantastic. Ashley, big props for going back and following up on this. "It's like a word journey." That is awesome. As is Falker Satherhood, of course. The reaction of the guy in the bakery is pretty good too. Just looks at it, cracks up, looks at it, and loses it again.

Jenn, fantastic selection for a Monday morning. What a great way to start off the week!

I would HAVE to go in and talk to the "little old lady who needs glasses...and a transmission."I couldn't NOT go--it is just such an weird mystery about WHY there ended up being SIX (!!!) extra letters in there! Mind-boggling. Take out the extra "lkersa" and it would've been okay, you know?Is that "lkersa" a code for something subversive? Maybe the poor old thing needs a hearing aid, as well as glasses...I'm thinking that it's not *that* much of a reach--(all things considered)--to suppose that she MIGHT have HEARD: "Fatherhood, in cursive" --and couldn't spell (or do spacing) worth a darn, and wrote on what she thought was just the ticket. "Fa (in cursive, i.e.: lkersa)therhood."I'm trying to make sense of this, here, but forget it--that's just ridiculous. PLEASE, someone- I'm begging you-- go back and find out WHY the bloody hell she did that!=^0(0^=

I bet the decorator did a cake for Walker Sutherland just before this one.

Dial up users -- basically, the guy goes to the bakery counter and tells the clerk that he wants to meet the person who decorated their cake and shows the clerk a polaroid. The clerk reads it, looks puzzled, laughs, the guy makes comments like, "it's a real treat, we just want to meet the decorator, that's a treasure" etc etc while the clerk is cracking up. The clerk says the lady who did it is not there. He says he might be able to get them some money back on the cake and goes to see his manager. In the end they talk to another lady who is pretty serious and says the lady isn't there, asks if they have a receipt, and gives them the store manager's name and number. I think the cake is more funny than the video.

I need to know what she was thinking!! this is fantastic. the guy on the counter is brilliant. we shouldn't be too hard on the woman on the desk, she was just trying to be professional, and you have to admire her ability to keep a straight face!!

Now my husband wants me to get him a cake that says "Happy Falker Satherhood!" That was HILARIOUS. I certainly hope that manager doesn't go through her *whole* life with that sense of humor! Life must be hard. =p:

Totally hilarious! I love they took the initiative and went to investigate, they cracked me up!

I also loved how the employee cracked up laughing so bad, he was clearly tickled too!

I wish, wish, wish that they could do another video for when they talk to the employee who wrecked the caked. I think we are all dying to know what goes on in the mind of a wrecker. Usually they do stay so anonymous!

This one was priceless!!! I might have to make a Falker Satherhood cake for Falker Sather's day (Father's Day) after I email this around to my parents! And SendingTheClowns - I think the end was "little old lady who needs glasses...end of transmission." But I'd want to talk to the little old lady too - and order & pick up all my cakes in the afternoon!!!

At the risk of repeating a billion other posts I can't see yet, it's pretty clear that the "Falker" part is actually "Father" without the cross on the t! And i'm guessing the Satherhood is the s from "Fathers" and then they started over for some reason writing Fatherhood again and forgot the F this time? So many unknowns. Should have waited to post a video until we had answers!

Kudos to the guy behind the counter. He saw the humor and appreciated that the customer brought it to their attention. However, that manager - geesh, get a sense of humor! She didn't really seem to care about the "quality" of the workmanship being sold at their store.

Oh absolutely a Happy Falker Satherhood t-shirt, with "It's a word journey" on the back.

That's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. What was funniest to me was, when the guy suggested that the decorator had maybe a little too much to drink, the bakery guy reached down ... but he didn't bring up a bottle of Jack Daniel's. Or a Corona. Which is what I expected.

That is hilarious! And completely, utterly baffling. Kudos to the bakery worker for being so great about the whole thing! I'm sad that the manager didn't find it equally amusing. Did they go back the next day to meet the lady?? I would have been dying to know what the heck she was thinking!

Actually, I'm marveling at the fact that she spelled "Congratulations" correctly. I'd estimate about 2/3 of the decorators out there don't know how to spell that word. In fact, I'd venture there isn't enough room on the interwebs to post all the photos of cakes spelled: "Congradulations". Just an observation.

afrancis said... "And SendingTheClowns - I think the end was "little old lady who needs glasses...end of transmission." "

OOPSIE!! I THOUGHT it sounded like an odd thing to say!Do you remember Rosanne Rosannadanna from the OLD Saturday Night Live? Gilda Radner?Well...as she would've said:"NeVER mind!"=^~~^==================================Cara said... Does anybody else think...Kiefer Sutherland, when they read Falker Satherhood...or is it just me?

Hmmm--apparently it's just you.But it's no worse than the convoluted thing I came up with!>^(.)(.)^<

@Anon 2:20--I was thinking along those lines too... I can't really blame her for not being 100% chipper. I never worked at a grocery store, but if someone had come into the McDonald's I worked at after high school and wanted to show me a hilarious photo of how badly we screwed up their order, I'm not sure I would be able to take it objectively (rather than like "ha ha, this store and its employees sure are dumb") even though the videographers were outwardly polite. Customer service ain't easy. But then I suppose we all know that. :)

"Falker Satherhood" is the most bewildering thing I have seen in a long time. I agree with a previous poster that the most likely explanation is that the "falker" part must be intended as "father," but the rest just defies understanding.

i imagine the "manager" in the video is simply a customer service person, not the actual manager, and people do weird things when they're on camera. maybe she was afraid that if she did anything "wrong" the video would come back to bite her.

And maybe I missed some tiny something, but how this cake ever left the store in the first place is what I'd like to know. I mean, theoretically I can *imagine* a conversation such as this: " Yes, sure--I can pick up the cake FOR you.....What's that? Make SURE it says 'Happy Father's Day' on it? No PROBLEM!"But it left the store. Like THAT.The only thing left to think is that maybe there IS no old, blind, or hard-of-hearing decorator-lady...with or without a transmission (wink). Maybe someone ordered it ON PURPOSE. Someone with a not-so-great amount of love for dear old Dad? The customer's name wouldn't happen to be Macbeth, would it?=^-~^=

I thought they were saying "the little old lady who needs glasses AND a transmission" too, and I just thought, oh, that must be why she didn't make it in to work yet.

Michelle S. -- I used to think congratulations was spelled with a D. I was helping decorate my cousin's school for their grad, and I was told to write congratulations in the middle of a huge poster they had put up. So I wrote CONGRADULATIONS. The teacher saw it and had a heart attack, and I didn't believe her that it was spelled wrong until we looked it up in a dictionary. No problem, I said, I can fix it. So I changed it to CON"GRAD"ULATIONS. HA

As the midnight hour strikes, however, he dons his cape and mask, hops astride his giant mobile carrot, and takes his rightful place as: FALKER SATHERHOOD, the greatest Wreckerator of all time!

Yes, Falker Satherhood--patron saint of the Cake Wreck, inventor of the CCC, misspeller of words written--poorly-justified--in black frosting. Armed with his mighty airbrush and a rainbow of Colors Not Commonly Found In Nature, he roams the restless night, seeking the ultimate canvas of pristine white cake which has eluded him for so many interminable years. When he finds it, he will unleash his years of rage and his morbid, twisted craftsmanship upon an unsuspecting world, in the process creating:

SendintheClowns and Margaret... I so thought they said she needed a transmission... and assumed her car had broken down and that's what the serious lady said was the reason the wreckorater had left for the day... since serious lady was not interested in being filmed, laughing, or speaking up so we could all enjoy her irritation with her job...

and I agree with everyone... I would totally buy a "Happy Falker Satherhood" t-shirt with "It's a word journey" on the back..

the "l" is an unfinished "t", and the "k" is actually a really badly formed "h". The decorator started out writing "fathers day" and realized a couple letters in , I'm gonna bet. The hillarious bit is that they realized but still thought they could sneak that one past the customer....

I think I missed what was funny about the video...Some guy publically humiliating what turned out to be some little old lady and posting it on YouTube?

I mean, why did this deserve a video, A. And B, why couldn't you have just written it out so I didn't have to WATCH that thing? Just a blurb that says "OH for those of you who don't want to watch it the TL;DR version is a little old lady made it and yadda yadda."

Still doesn't answer the question what it was she THOUGHT she was writing though. /fail cakewrecks. /fail. That hurts me to say.

yeah, i'm really shocked at the amount of people who think that going to the store and harassing employees on camera is funny. you've never had a bad day or screwed up? the cake itself is funny, but really, you want to meet the cake decorator because it's a "treasure"? i'm sure cake decorating at a grocery store isn't demoralizing enough already...i guess it's just not my brand of humor.

We just wanted to thank everyone who's been enjoying this cake wreck,especially those of you who demanded it be available in shirt form. We're super stoked and everyone at our studio wants one!

We don't have any plans to return to the bakery for a follow up video, mostly because this took place about 2yrs ago. Although we'd love to give the cool bakery dude a shirt, he probably doesn't work there anymore If he does, he probably wouldn't remember us and we'd get escorted out by security.

To answer the very few negative comments we've gotten: We had no idea when we went to the bakery that the culprit was some sweet little old woman. Since she wasn't even there to be embarrassed, I guess I don't see how this video could be considered cruel. It's true -- we all make mistakes and I think its healthy to be able to laugh at them. My mistake was not cutting the camera sooner and avoiding the dead footage of the poopy manager at the end. Fair enough?Thanks again everybody :-)Ashley J., Rebner, and the studio crew

All but one of the little old ladies I know (and I know a lot!!!) would have cracked up laughing if it was them and someone brought a polaroid... i can literally hear and see them all double over at the hysterics...

i dont think i have laughed that hard in my life... sad thing is my brothers use to work at this grocery store... and they too had an old lady working there bakery... must be a thing to do lol. by far made my day now off to finish more cake work lol

i'm afraid i'm not really comprehending the hilarity. it's a cake inscribed horribly wrongly. the inscription is funny in that it's more baffling than an ordinary typo-level misspelling, but that's about it. no easy puns, no double meanings, just wrongness. and the video was about as funny as 90% of all home videos i've seen, which is not very unless you share in the original joke.

Okay, mistakes do happen! Cake decorators can be careless, poor spellers, illiterate, even drunk. but here's another scenario could have occurred also :

Decorator: well, it;s 8am Saturday and I still have 15 cakes to do before noon because everyone waits till Friday late afternoon/ night to order. Wait, what does this one say? It looks like " Happy Falker Satherhood". It's probably supposed to be Fatherhood? Or sainthood? Maybe it's a Norwegian holiday or something.I think Bob the night manager took this one. Of course he's not around to ask. Well, let me call the customer, since I'm not incredibly busy right now, or anything.

Decorator: (hanging up) Well, OF COURSE it's an office number. Of course they don't think we have areason for asking their number, or anything. Well,I'm going to write this out exactly as it is on the order. Then I shall finish my work, cash my $220.00 paycheck, and go home.

This kind of thing happened to me every weekend!It wasn't always an office, sometimes people just never answered their phones. On a few occasionstheir service was disconnected. In my case, I preferred to leave the cake blank, with a polite noteand a writing tube next to it. That way, coworkers had to either learn how to write in frosting, or learn how to write clearly on an order slip.

That is the most humorless customer service lady I have ever seen in my life. Seriously is she afraid that by cracking a smile she will justify the refund of all 20$ bucks for the cake (how much CAN this cake cost?).At this point, the cake is, of course, priceless.

The decorator probably was going to write "happy father's day." He/she wrote "happy fathers" then remembered what the customer had actually ordered, then continued as if everthing was going okay: "atherhood." The end product: "happy father satherhood!" also forgot to cross the "t" in father. still very funny though.

My fiance and I just about died when we saw this. So two nights later I made a cake. Guess what I wrote on it, yep. We didn't eat it until the next day, because each time we looked at it, we started cracking up all over again.

this is the funniest thing I have ever seen. I am DYING laughing over here.... and I am supposed to be up in 5 hours for a fitness boot camp but I can't stop scrolling through the site! Curses!!!! *shake fist*Seriously though. I am in pain from laughing.

I don't think that solemn-faced woman was the manager; it looked like she was working customer service, since she gave them the contact information for the actual manager.

And while my own co-workers and I couldn't stop giggling at that cake, I think people should give the woman in the video a break. Personally, I think that going into the store to film the employees was rude. The customers may not have been angry about the mistake, but they were filming it, unable to contain their laughter, and making comments the entire time. It's easy to say that she needs to "lighten up," but if I were working a low-paid retail job and someone came in filming me(to interrupt a phone call!) and then laughed while I was just trying to do my job, I wouldn't appreciate it, either. (And if the video were posted online, I'd be livid.) Plus there isn't any mystery behind what happened here - obviously, someone made a mistake. That doesn't need an explanation, and knowing more about the wreckerator doesn't make it any funnier.

Seriously, I love this website and LOVE reading everyone else's comments, but while it's fun to snark at the finished products, bothering these people is sort of mean.

Thess ones always make me wonder about who's really at fault. Does the submitter know how clear the directions to the decorator actually were? Maybe she was there that morning preparing the cake think "What the HELL is Falker Satherhood? Is this a joke cake or something..."

I know I've seen some chicken scratch that even when I've found out what it said I still couldn't pick out the letters.

I think I figured it out. She started to write "Happy Fatherhood," but her mind went to "Happy Father's Day," the more common greeting. The "k" is really an "h" and she didn't cross the "t." That's why there's a space before the "s" - she was going to put an apostrophe there. She picked up on the error, didn't want to trash the cake (may have lived during "The Great Depression"), so just continued with the correct greeting. Result: Happy Father's . . . atherhood. (the uncrossed t looking like an l; no apostrophe before the s)

I really like the accompanying video. "Why don't you come back to the store- we'll give you a discount on a special 'Happy Malkerth's Day' cake for the mothers in the office. Or perhaps you'd be in the market for a 'Happy Dirth Bay' cake? Either way, we'll be sure to make good on this, ok? Here at PayMore Grocery Mart, we want our customers to know that not only are they important, we actually care less."

This, to date, is my most fave cake posted on this site. The simplicity of the wreck is the key. I mean, I can't even begin to imagine how the decorator arrived at "Falkersatherhood". There is no logical stream of consciousness that would allow me to arrive at that word. Brilliant!

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090625122527AAAeopAFalker Satherhood is actually a Holiday and so she wasn't drunk and she does know what shes talking about so it's very rude to say she's stupid because she knows what she's talking about!

You know, you shouldn't believe everything you read on the Internet. The only references to "Falker Satherhood" on the Web are either on blogs after this cake was published or in cross-reference to Cake Wrecks. Any legitimate reference site does not recognize the phrase.

My grandma used to read those weekly tabloids like "The Star" and would tell us "news" from them in breathless tones as if it was stunning information. We would roll our eyes at her for believing that Elvis was abducted by aliens and she would hotly reply, "Well, they wouldn't print it if it wasn't true!"

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